Is Amish Food Really Better?

I had a massive craving for pie the other day, one which struck like lightning. In North Carolina I am over 2 hours from any Amish communities, so I headed posthaste to my local Kroger for the store-baked variety.

The black raspberry pie I selected came in an attractive matte box which had encouraging things printed on it, like “Private Selection” and “Fresh Baked In Store”. Even better, it was still warm. The pie lightened my wallet by a little over 8 dollars. Not too expensive, but not too low to automatically place its quality in question. So far, so good.

Too much left to be Amish?

As with so many things in life, appearances cease to matter if the container’s contents are not up to par. The verdict? It was tasty enough, though, I was sure, not as good as most Amish pies I had eaten.

Something was missing which I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A pleasure center in my brain had not been tweaked by this pie in a way that others had managed. Were I a more regular baker perhaps I could be more specific.

But had you popped it in a plain unmarked white box, and told me it was Amish, would I have believed you? Possibly; quite probably actually. Would I have judged it more favorably “knowing” Amish people had made it? A good question.

Magic in the kitchen

What got me thinking about this? A reader recently shared an anecdote about a restaurant which serves food branded with the “Amish” name:

My niece works at [name redacted] Restaurant. My brother gave this story:

‘A relative’ discovered that food can come in the restaurant’s back door from Sysco, be prepared by Mexicans, and be sold out the front as Amish food! (or Amish Kitchen Cooking or Amish cooking)

Ever hear anything similar? Makes me wonder how many tourists eat there only to later regale the folks at home with tales of delicious Amish cuisine. Maybe the superiority of Amish food is built partially upon myth.

How do you think you might do in an Amish food taste test? Could you tell the difference between an Amish-made dish and its non-Amish counterpart?

And maybe the most important question: What makes the Amish version of a food better? How much is the package, and how much is something more?

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I think a big part of what makes the Amish version of food better is that people often times stereotype all Amish women as being great cooks. This stereotype may cause people to think of all “Amish made food” as being better than it actually is. My experience with Amish baking/cooking has varied. There have been times where it has exceeded my expectations, and others where it is as good as any “englisher’s” cooking. I think it really just depends on who’s doing the cooking!

I have had some Amish cooking (or supposedly Amish cooking) that was excellent. I have had some Amish cooking that was mediocre. I have also noticed that when you go to some Amish settlements in Ohio and Indiana, the food is EXACTLY alike. It has to be made at some central location. I can’t believe that Mrs. Yoder makes her chicken, dressing, pies, etc. EXACTLY like Mrs. Miller. Even the cole slaw is exactly like the cole slaw in several places. Once I went to a workshop that boasted Amish food for lunch. Lunch was a turkey lunchmeat sandwich on white bread, chicken noodle soup, and chocolate chip cookies. That was a huge disappointment, and it wasn’t inexpensive. I do like shoofly pie, sugar cream pie, and the sweet peanut butter spread found in some Amish restaurants, and I don’t find it outside Amish places.

I think we all know that the reason the Amish baking is ‘generally’ better is because they bake more and have bigger families, more church related gatherings, etc. Practice makes perfect, so all the experience pays off. Real lard used in the crust, and also often times fresh fruit was canned and preserved. To restaurant cooking, I agree that too many times it is ‘branded’ and not truly from scratch.
I have had some good cooking in the ‘Englishers’ World, too.

It also ome from fresh ingriedients and filled with lots of time and love! Not the quick and fastfood idis’ that mass prduction leaves out. Made with love is what make the Amish food better and the fresh items also help!

I come from a community in Daviess County Indiana. My grandparents and all of my family on my Dad’s side are Amish or Mennonite. I grew up eating special meals made by my Grandma Viola and her daughters. Nothing better in the world and all the memories of eating home made jellies and jams and all the goodies. My favorite growing up was the canned beef and mashed potatoes, noodles and corn…mmmmmm. makes me hungry just thinking about it. Hospitality and love makes it all the more special.

Yes, we all cook differently, no matter what area you live in or come from. I’ve noticed the Amish way of cooking, is very similar to the way my mom always cooked — and she was not Amish. Although, I did find out when in Lancaster, PA and in Pinecraft, FL, that the meals were delicious!! I think it is the “simplicity” of recipes and being homemade and fresh that makes Amish cooking stand out. Back when my mom learned how to cook, (1920’s, etc) there was less convenience foods, and everything was either fresh or homemade, and most grocery stores were not the ‘gigantic’ big box stores, that have everything imaginable!

Also, Amish restaurants or Amish-made is not the only way you can experience “good home-cooked” meals; Down here in the South, we have many “mom/pop” restaurants that have homecooking and are prepared simply and are freshly made, too. We call this “Country” cooking, in some areas. But we all have those fond memories of many a meal, shared with family, that “momma” used to make! (At least I do).
SharonR

At my bnb I bake my own homemade pies with recipes handed down from my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and lastly to me. I have on occasion purchased half moons or pies to serve from a local Amish stand. I can depend on this particular woman’s pies to taste just as good as mine; her crust is perfect, light and flaky. One day I stopped at another Amish home stand and decided to buy some of her pies. YUCK! Her crust was so tough, I can’t imagine what ingredients she used, and it was more goo than berries. Very disappointed and will never buy hers again. So as others have commented, it all depends on the baker! But I will say, when I’ve had store bought pies, they never compare in any way with a fresh baked Amish baked pie!!

When I was visiting friends in Pennsylvania, they took me to an “Amish” restaurant. There wasn’t an Amish item on the menu. The restaurant wasn’t even decorated with Amish items. The food was great, but it wasn’t Amish, which I had a taste for. All I could think of was tourist trap. My friends paid the bill which made me feel a little better, but still it wasn’t what I really had a taste for.

They do the same thing in some shops in New York State. The name is Amish this or Amish that and there isn’t an Amish item in the store. There are many stores that have Amish items-that tell the truth, but there are some that are really streaching the truth.

I have found since I opened my business and even before hand, almost all stores, (especially chain stores, like grocery stores) and many restaurants use pies that they buy wholesale and are frozen and not baked. They bake them on the premises which allows them to say “fresh baked on the premises” and the like.

When many of the Amish stores and restaurants make pies they will often use commercially made pie fillings and make their own pie dough for the crust. This is the method I use rather than frozen. I am honest and tell my customers it is a commercially made filling and I make the dough. They are happy and say they are the best tasting pies around. Putting a pie together in this method is definitely fresher and better tasting than the ones that a commercially produced and frozen for later baking.

I would imagine Erik, is what you found in the Kroger store was one that was frozen and baked on the premises.

Until recently, Beachy’s in Arthur used the same commercially made fillings as I do now. We have the same food distributors but they have since gone in house and have started making their own fillings both to use in their pies and also canned to sell to their customers.

I live in Northeast Missouri close to the Iowa state line, where many Amish communities abound. I’ve eaten Amish made pies and other dishes many times. Claire is 100% correct. It depends on who is doing the cooking. I’ve had some very tasty Amish made foods,and some not so great. As with ‘englishers’, the Amish ladies all have their own individual ways of preparing food.

I have to say that sometimes I can tell the difference and its not a good thing in some cases. I live about 30 minutes away from one of the largest Amish settlements in Ohio and while I love many of the Amish goods I can get, I’ve had some negative experiences with them as well.
I belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture endeavor)where they brought on an Amish bakery as part of the CSA for extras if you’d like to buy them.
M’honey loves rhubarb pies so I ordered one from them. It was nothing more than red colored cornstarch.It was totally disgusting. There was not one single piece of rhubarb that we could see or taste and we threw it away. Its sad since I know I can get a good “amish” made pie at a restaurant out there so thats where I go for them if Im not baking one myself.

Another example of Amish made bakery is the loaves of bread we got thru them. They molded fast which tells me its fresh which is great, but you cant slice it and use it for sandwiches because it crumbles apart too bad. So.. theres good & bad to those two examples.

The veggies & eggs I get from my CSA & hence the Amish are wonderful. They’re certified organic and we go on farm visits at least once a month and they’re very open & friendly about us coming over any time. I love this about the CSA & our Amish farmers.

I also love to get cheese from an Amish Co-op in Middlefield,Geauga Co. Ohio. They get most of their milk from Amish farms and make most of their own cheeses on premises. You can watch them during the weekdays thru large windows into the factory. This cheese is much better than another well known cheese company who portrays itself as being Amish but is not.

Also, the cheese at the Co-op is live food and it goes bad faster than store-bought cheese but to me, that is telling me that it is a real food with life, not a food like substance.

I have to say that some of the foods they eat regularly, we dont eat at all and I was kind of shocked to find they eat more what I consider “junk foods” since many have a closer tie to the land and farms than some of us, but I guess no matter what your background, its all about choices you make.

Definitely, it is the one cooking, along with the ingredients that they use, that makes the difference — Amish or not Amish! However, when you live near/in an Amish community and KNOW the cooks, and KNOW they are using fresh, home-raised ingredients, Amish cooking is the best!

This coming Saturday several churches/communities in SW Kansas are doing “Ground-Hog” Suppers fundraisers. No one there is Amish, but the home-raised/processed sausage, sausage gravy, along with homemade biscuits and pie, will bring about some of the best eating for miles!

During the summer when the wood cook stove is not capable of hot oven temps, (a raised fire grate is used for cook top only) my wife uses a gas oven. Like electric, home and commercial ranges all have vents and allow air circulation around food. Most are designed to crack the bottom broiler or storage door when in use for proper circulation. (most don’t know this) We have a double oven commercial Garland for summer cooking, however our only heat source all winter is the Kitchen Queen Amish built cookstove. The oven runs 300 to 350 when home heating, so it’s always ready to go, even before being turned on. The difference with coal or wood fired ovens, is the oven door has the same gasket seal as the firebox. There is no air circulation in a wood or coal fired cookstove. This steams the food as well as bakes it. More difficult to brown the tops of sticky buns or caseroles, but it doesn’t burn things even if higher temperature than wanted is achieved. Browning things are done on the stove top, after baking. You must be aware of keeping your face and body back when opening the oven door due to steam as well. Baking a ham, roasting turkey, chicken or other meats with moisture, you must place towels on the floor in front of oven door, since when opened to baste or check food, the door cools and condensates the moist atmosphere in the oven, and it actually drips off the interior of oven door onto the floor. This isn’t required with ovens that circulate air and are vented. So there is a big difference in summer and winter food. (I’m not looking forward to summer but my body is. I go from 140# all summer to 160 every winter)
Recipes usually don’t specify brand name ingredients as well. Comparing notes with Amish wives, my wife has found certain brands make a huge difference. Some products are only available in Amish areas so using a replacement just isn’t the same. (Root Beer extract) To perfect her ShooFly, she has experimented with combinations of clear and dark Kero Syrup as well as different molasses of different strengths. (Original, Full Flavor, Mild….. 2 or 3 grades by each company) Same as our canned pickles and chow-chow. It’s all good, but it takes years to find just the right combinations. When she figures it out, like many, she won’t share those secrets. She won’t even tell ME what goes in her ShooFly.

Very informative, Mr. Long! WOW…never cooked on a wood stove, before, and seems like a lot to know and learn about them, and I bet there is a difference in meal quality, etc. I have used gas stoves, however, which I like using. Thanks for sharing!
SharonR

This summer my daughter was up visiting from North Carolina with her husband. They had planned to stay at Mark’s house but that was when the temp was around 108 and Mark doesn’t have air-conditiong. I only have one bedroom at my place and while I’d be willing to share, Fritzi isn’t. Anyway, they decided to get a room at an air-conditioned motel in Kenton. Mark was kind of showing them around. He’d always wanted to visit a bulk food and bakery owned by Mary Slabaugh in the Hardin County area. Well, they asked directions and made it there. They went in the shop and Mark said he knew how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedneggo must have felt in the “Fiery Furnace.” It was 108 outside and they had the wood fired oven going inside baking pies. Mark said it was like an inferno inside. Didn’t seem to bother Mary and her helpers he said. They were just bustling around like the heat didn’t bother them at all. Mark said he figured it must have been 120 inside. When he got outside, the 108 temp outside felt polar to him. I don’t know how they can stand it.

What you’re looking for is a good cook using good ingredients. The Amish are just more likely to be armed with their grandma’s recipe and to be using fresh ingredients. Everyone around here, Amish and English, has access to local fresh fruits and veggies right from the farm, big brown Amish eggs, maple sugar, honey, and cheese. Phyllis at the B&B is not Amish and she makes a breakfast to die for. And our local pie ladies are legendary.

My mother was from Nebraska and we definitely aren’t Amish. However my grandmother grew up with a German grandmother who was from Pennsylvania. My grandmother encorporated the German, midwest and African American cuisines together and most of the time she cooked from scratch. Even when it was just her and my grandfather. My mother was pretty much the same. Most of the deserts were backed from scratch until my mother’s arthritis took over. Consequently I have a great appreciation for homemade food and try to do the same in my home even though I’m the only one living there. In short I agree with most everyone else that it is probably the repetition,the fact that they make it with love and that they use fresh or canned items instead of going to the box for their dishes that makes their food so memorable.

I heat and cook on an Amish built wood cookstove, Bakers Choice, most of the year. it seems to be a well known fact that food cooked on a wood fire taste much better. When i go visit the MS amish, they all still cook on wood cookstoves, and Yes there is a big difference in their food. Also, for those of you not from the rural areas, home canned and cooked food does not taste like store bought. I have lots of fresh egg customers, who say fresh is best.These same people are the first to buy produce when the garden starts. As the saying goes, “Close to the land, close to God.”

I am going to tell you something not want to hear. I LOVE my community but this is the truth! Amish women mostly use shortening (not lard) in their pies. Especially if they are make a lot of them. Many, many, many times they use bulk pie fillings and they love to put canned creaam of mushroom soup in everything!! Lol! I am Beachy Amis h-Mennonite and I have made lots and lots of fry pies and whole pies with both Amish (old and New order) and Mennonite ladies and anyone who is making them in quantity (typically) is going to do it the cheapest way they can

LOL…..Kroger does have good pies…..like someone said, they do bake them there, but they do not MAKE them there….I asked….
They also have a pretty good pizza…..bought one yesterday on sale, a large for $3.49, usually sells for 6 or 7.99…..try it on sale and see if you like it…bought a personal size DIGIORNO last week, for almost that much….and it was horrible…..was all crust……

I usually only buy Amish bakery items….have eaten in their restaurants, and I really don’t think their food is all that….had a turkey dinner there, the stuffing was horrible…..stove top is much better….even tried their peanut butter pie (my son wanted it) so we share it…I only had one bite…..I can make a much better peanut butter pie than that was….just sayin……….

As always, I asked my son, Mark’s, take on Amish cooking. First of all he wanted to comment on Amish restaurants. There are very, very few actual Amish owned restaurants. Most Amish ordnungs would not permit electricity from off the grid and a restaurant would just about have to have that. So, “Amish” restaurants are actually restaurants that serve “Amish” style food. They can be owned by English, former Amish, or more liberal Plain churches. As to Amish cooking it might surprise you. Mark says that Tex/Mex is really popular with the Amish. Taco salads, burritos, tacos, etc. Also, all kinds of casseroles, chicken, ham, etc. A popular dish to fix for large crowds is scalloped potatoes and ham chunks. Mark probably cooks more of what people think of as Amish food than most of the Amish do. My wife learned how to cook from her mother who lived beside us or with us the last twenty or so years of her life. My wife’s mother was, in turn, raised by her grandmother. So the foods Mark ate when he was growing up were the country foods of the 1800’s, literally. I never liked casseroles, myself so I certainly never encouraged Charline to fix them. If you were to come to supper at Mark’s house he might fix you boiled beef and potatoes; boiled ham with fresh green beans and potatoes; chicken and noodles; etc. One of the meals I really miss now that Charline is gone were her breaded pork chops. Pork chops drudged in egg and cracker crumbs. Then, fried in lard. Heart attack on a plate but they surely tasted good. After Charline got sick and was paralyzed from cancer she told us she would like breaded pork chops one more time. Mark went to the store and got the chops and lard and tried to fry them up the way his mom always had. He didn’t do too bad considering it was his first time.

You are right about Amish-owned physical restaurants being rare. I think there was one in Nebraska once and possibly Oklahoma. This would be leaving out the home meal businesses. Mark sounds like he does pretty well in the kitchen.

Sorry, I was momentarily caught up in a time warp & was tuned in to Three Dog Night. It was 1971 and life was good. Ahh, high school …

Anyway, if there is an Amish owned restaurant in Oklahoma, I’d like to know about it. Have been to two places there in the last few years and neither was A)anywhere close to being Amish owned, operated or employing anyone that looked even remotely Amish … that I could tell. OR B)Worth going back to try again. Insert sad face here.

They did have catchy names like “Amish Country Cooking” or some such non-sense. If anyone knows where a truly Amish owned restaurant is in Oklahoma I’d appreciate hearing about it.

Oldkat on Oklahoma I seem to remember reading that recently, but I’ve been reading so much material the past few weeks I am not exactly sure where…will see if I can come across it again but don’t quote me yet

OldKat, have you tried the Dutch Pantry Restaurant in Chouteau, Oklahoma? The Detweiler owners were raised Amish, but are Mennonite now, so it’s not truly Amish either.
http://www.travelok.com/listings/sid.5/search.Chouteau/seed.702367 categorizes this restaurant’s food as “American.”

I was at an Amish house and bought a glass jar of canned beets that was for sale among other things. When I got a good look at the jar at home, I wasn’t sure if it looked right on the inside or not. I don’t can, so I don’t know. A Mennonite friend called me a couple of days later and I got the jar (still sealed) out of the refrigerator and told her what it looked like. She said to throw it out and don’t open it. If I did open it, it could send those beets all over the kitchen and the jar could break. It was what she called a bad canning and just toss it-which I did. So I guess there are good cooks amd bad cooks in Amish, Mennonite or English.

Lard is the traditional ingredient Amish used for pie crust. My Mom who grew up Amish made the absolute best fruit pies with thinly rolled out crusts and NEVER,EVER store-bought filling. No one would ever have any trouble distinquishing from a store bakery. My Mom also went through 3 lbs of home-made butter every week for cooking. Yes there is a difference!

I would agree on two of the ingredients that improve the taste: wood cookstoves and lard. Sadly, I no longer have the first ( we now use gas) and can’t eat much of the second….

Erik, since you’re two hours from the nearest Amish community, next time you’re in the mood, take a ride up to South Boston to the Windmill Bake Shop. It’s Mennonite, but there are Amish working there, and the baked goods are pretty good. It’s a good thing I don’t live too close myself, or I’d weigh 300 lbs….

Thanks for reminding me Forest. I keep forgetting that Halifax County VA is closer to Raleigh than Union Grove NC. I don’t remember seeing any Amish baked goods when I was in the Amish community there, but good to know of the one in South Boston area.

www.facebook.com/authorsherrygore on Jan. 8 asked a similar question, “What is it about Amish cooking that makes it special/different to you?” From the 70 answers, here are a few, some of which are about same as some comments above: cooking from scratch, it’s comfort food, made with love, down home country cooking, fresh homemade, like Mom’s cooking and Grandma’s, garden to table, has no aftertaste, “melted to the point of browning” real butter, simple ingredients, no additives, and lots of butter and cream.

Mark told me that one of the secrets to Amish fried or baked chicken is something called Runion. I’ve never seen it but it some kind of seasoning mix that the chicken is fixed with. Mark said it is mixed with flour, etc, to make the coating for the chicken before it is fried or baked. Anybody else know about Runion? Mark says he gets it at the local bulk food store.

Runion chicken is the best. I’m from Canada and have been making it for years. You can buy it at Walnut creek cheese, in Ohio. I used to have it shipped to us, but when I’m there I aways stock up. Its a mixture of flour and spices (i think it comes from Tennessee). I love to make Runion chicken wraps, my recipe is submitted on the walnut creek cheese site. Try a bag, you won’t be disappointed. I do alot of Amish cooking, (must have over 50 cookbooks) and there is a differance in taste, from everyday “english” food. I know most dishes are richer and hearty, so we don’t have them as often. My mothers’ pie crust recipes is an old farmers recipe that call for lard, and its the flakey crust, ever. I visit Ohio, Indiana and Ontario amish areas, and I do find the cooking to be similar. I think with Ohio and Indiana, the Essenhaus and Dutch valley are the same owners, so the food is always consistant. Mrs. Yoders Kitchen is my favorite place to eat. Worth the wait, everytime. Thanks, mb Windsor Ontario, Canada

I, too, have a bag of Runion Mix for breading. It has flour, corn flake crumbs, baking powder, spices, and more.

When I visit a Chinese Restaurant, I usually cannot find mashed potatoes. Are mashed potatoes Amish or German or American or Pennsylvania Dutch?

It may be better to eat food with ingredients you can pronounce!

Sugar is used rather heavily in Amish food. Some pecan pie is too sweet. Of course, sugar is in desserts, but also in Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Cole slaw, deviled eggs, peas, creamed corn, Harvard Beets, sweet and sour dressing, bread and butter pickles, and on top of grapefruit. At least real sugar is not artificial. One idea is, to make food taste good, just add sugar! Isn’t that sweet!

Adding to my comment- having eaten lots of bona fide Amish cooking in my lifetime, I can honestly say I can’t taste the difference between that and other home-cooked from scratch cooking. They do tend to use a lot of butter and cheese…and that does tend to make stuff yummy!

Homemade is always better than store bought. I’ve replied a great deal about perogies, and I remember that the homemade potato filling was a doughy but wonderful treat, especially when there where more of them than the number of casings.
I can vaguely remember my father and his elderly mother making them when I was a kid, and later I think my father and I where in happy awe when we went to a Polish church basement to buy some homemade ones when we saw the little production line of older Polish women making them, probably snacking on the odd one if I recall.

[sorry, i forgot to click the “not a spammer” option, and now I got a message on the site that read “Your comment is awaiting moderation”, I wasn’t thinking straight, I was thinking perogies and grandma.]

I agree – lard. Sold in giant blobs in every grocery and Amish store around here.

Also, my Swartzentruber fry pie neighbor down the road – she uses both purchased bulk pie filling (again, available everywhere the Amish shop here) and her own preserves or filling. My absolute favorite filling is the lemon and that is from bulk, and I don’t care, lol! In fact, I could skip a couple of miles down the road and buy a large plastic sack of the same lemon filling right now and just eat it straight, but I’ll let her add the tasty glazed pocket!

Another secret is that a really good meal often, usually, is worked on for hours. Lovingly stirring, peeling, scrubbing, chopping, cooking, and baking to make so that everything turns out right, and ready at the same time. I was raised conservative (Beachy Amish) Mennonite, and I love love love to cook and bake. It is therapy to me, and I put a lot of love into my made from scratch food for my family.and friends. I get told often how much people like my foods, but they aren’t extraordinary. I think it’s just that they are made with love, care, and forethought….